And made the stairs to heaven as plain
As His uplifted cross--

The stairs of pain and woe
In all the work on earth,
Up which the patient toilers go
To their eternal birth.

O Master, Master mine,
I read the legend now,
_To work and suffer is divine_,
All radiant on Thy brow.

* * * * *

Life in Death

Strong children of decay,
Ye live by perishing:
To-morrow thrives on dead to-day,
And joy on suffering.

The labor of your hearts,
Like that of brain and hands,
Shall be for gain in other marts,
For bread in other lands.

And will ye now despond
Amid consuming toil,
When there is hope and joy beyond
Which death can not despoil?

Herein all comfort is:
_In usefulness and zeal,
The Lord announces who are His
And gives eternal weal_.

Sacrifice

Through stern and ruthless years
Beyond the ken of man,
All filled with ruin, pain, and tears,
Has God worked out His plan.

Change on the heels of change,
Like blood-hounds in the chase,
Has swept the earth in tireless range,
Spangled with heavenly grace.

At last the mystery
Of the great Cross of Christ,
Red with a world-wide agony,
The God-Man sacrificed;

And from the Sacrifice
The seven great notes of Peace,
Which pierce the clouds beneath all skies
Till pain and sorrow cease.

* * * * *

The Mind of Christ

Into the surging world,
Upon thy lips His word,
And in thy hand His flag unfurled,
Go, soldier of the Lord;

Like Him who came from far
To toil for our release,
And framed the startling notes of war
Out of the psalm of peace.

And all the recompense
Which thou wilt ever need,
Shall kindle in the throbbing sense
Of this life-laden creed:

_Grace has for him sufficed
Who has St. Michael's heart,
The fullness of the mind of Christ,
To do a hero's part_.

* * * * *

Sympathy.

The Master we revere,
Who bled on Calvary,
To fill us with heroic cheer,
Abides eternally.

From His ascended heights
Above the pain and ruth,
To all His servants He delights
To come in grace and truth.

His presence